The Secret Life of McKenna: Things are looking up, finally!

HN junior blogger McKenna Oxenden and her new horse Gigi hit some bumps in the road during the process of getting to know one another. This week, though, she only has good news to report.

From McKenna:

Well, Horse Nation, I did it!

Gigi and I successfully completed our first event, and ended up with a pretty pink ribbon to boot!

Needless to say, I was THRILLED with dressage. Getting to the event was quite the experience… Our other trailer driver got a flat tire on the way to the barn, and we got lost on our way, so we were all running extremely behind! I didn’t have much warm-up time, but we managed a 36! I would say not too shabby at all! Gigi listened very well throughout most of the test and I couldn’t be happier.

I had a fabulous show jump warm-up, but unfortunately went into the ring with my head not in the game. About halfway through the show jump course, I pulled my head out of my butt and actually RODE and it was FANTASTIC! Overall, everything could’ve been slowed down a bit more, but Gigi was ho-humming along so I went with it.

Cross-country was also superb. It being our first time out on course together, I am yet again very happy! Not everything was perfect, but they were just small blemishes in our greatness. Gig was a bit hesitant at the water, which is something we will continue to work on, and my other big thing was that she was not %100 listening to me–she was processing it, but just chose not to listen. I made her halt and trot some fences, which woke her up a bit to listening but it still wasn’t as good as it should be. I also noticed that I really need to work on keeping her straight to the fences, especially when she starts to become tired.

Overall, nothing was perfect by any means and we still have tons to improve on, but I would say everything is looking up, and we have a bright future together!

Go Team Gigi!

McKenna & Gigi